I do an open format radio show on Radio Regent online out of Regent Park in Toronto every Friday from 5 p.m. til 7,called CORBY's ORBIT playing everymusic, so far no Death Metal or light opera but who knows?http://www.radioregent.com/
Illustration by John Kricfalusi

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research fail to secure a device they've invented, the D.C. Mini, which allows people to record and watch their dreams. A thief uses the device to enter people's minds, when awake, and distract them with their own dreams and those of others. Chaos ensues. The trio - Chiba, Tokita, and Shima - assisted by a police inspector and by a sprite named Paprika must try to identify the thief as they ward off the thief's attacks on their own psyches. Dreams, reality, and the movies merge, while characters question the limits of science and the wisdom of Big Brother. Music is colossally salubrious.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Buddy Emmons:“It seemed that Buddy had a supernatural ability to play things so effortlessly and seamlessly on this really difficult instrument,” said Steve Fishell, the Grammy-winning producer and steel player who captained the 2013 album The Big E; A Salute To Steel Guitarist Buddy Emmons. “He could float between fiery single-note solos into cascading chordal movements and weave these into these beautiful solos and backup parts.” His sweeping, lyrical flourishes elevated such stylistically disparate classics as Ray Price’s “Night Life” and Judy Collins’ “Someday Soon".Emmons toured and recorded with Judy Collins, Gram Parsons, Ray Charles, the Carpenters, Nancy Sinatra, John Phillips, John Sebastian,Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours, Price’s Cherokee Cowboys and with various bands headed by Roger Miller, the Everly Brothers, Ray Pennington and others. (Reportage from CMT). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjvV37t5UIU

Lemmy British music journalist Mark Beech tweeted that Lemmy had told him: “I will be killed by death. I might be killed by too much booze, women or music, but it’s not a bad way to die.”Cory WellsWash away my troubles, wash away my pain

With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala

Ah, ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind
On the road to Shambala
Everyone is lucky, everyone is so kind
On the road to Shambala

Ron Hynes: Not just a prime representative of the honey flow of Newfoundland lyricism, but the creator of an inestimable contribution to the world-renowned Canadian Songbook. Populist, both tender and shrewd, revealer of the dark crannies into which love tucks itself away, his spirit was suffused with both steely irony and sparkling sentiment. His heart could be an open book or a cryptic arcane riddle. His death was in the same order of irrevocable heartbreak that his lyrics portrayed so bravely. Jesus wept.

Bob Johnston "None of 'em ever messed with the sound, except Paul Simon, a little bit. But everybody else, it was what I did. I was better than everybody else. And everybody else, you compare my work. Blonde on Blonde was voted the best album in rock history. And you compare all the work with what I did and compare the other people's records. I sold a billion fuckin' albums, worldwide."

Rico Rodriguez "The trombonist Rico Rodriguez played on myriad recordings in Jamaica and the UK, including the original version of Dandy Livingstone's 1967 infectious rock steady classic "A Message To You, Rudy" and its 1979 Top Ten remake by the ska revival band the Specials. Their epochal No 1 single "Ghost Town" would not have sounded half as haunting without his distinctive contribution. "The band was like a revolution," he reflected. "I really enjoyed playing with them. I like to do different music every night, but I have never been a trendy style of musician who leaves the roots for money or whatever," he said. "I do a lot of research. You need ideas, new inspiration. Music is an exploratory thing. I can't stop that." Pierre Perrone ~ http://www.independent.co.uk/

Jean Ritchie "There exists a mountain of circumstantial evidence that consciousness survives bodily death. This is the kind of evidence that would stand up in a court of law. Some people believe that science needs better tools to quantify what consciousness is. Perhaps when we discover what consciousness is we will be on the road to providing absolute scientific evidence that there is life after death."

Tut Taylor "During my career I've picked with a lot of folks, to name a few.... Norman Blake, John Hartford, Sam Bush, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, Tom McKinney, Rual Yarbrough, Randy Wood, Jim Johnson, The Bluegrass Five, The Season Travelers, Leon Russel, The Aereo-plane Band, Vassar Clements, Porter Wagoner, Ron and Don Norman, Hughie Wylie, J.N. and Onie Baxter and many others over the years. I played mandolin with Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mtn. Boys on the last night of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. I almost forgot to mention Roy Clark, Grandpa Jones, Charlie Collins, Scott Stoneman, Glen Campbell, Clarence and Roland White, Bill Monroe, Bennie Martin and Don Reno. If I do not mention any of my other friends please forgive me. Pickin has been a great part of my life, not financially rewarding but a lot of fun."

Luigi Creatore, a songwriter and record producer who teamed with his cousin Hugo Peretti to create hits for Little Peggy March, producing the No. 1 single “I Will Follow Him", Sam Cooke, who had success with Creatore-Peretti productions like “Chain Gang,”“Twistin’ the Night Away" and “Wonderful World”, a number of hits on Roulette for the singer Jimmie Rodgers, including “Honeycomb,” which reached No. 1 in 1957, two songs that were hits for Elvis Presley in 1961: “Wild in the Country,” from the movie of the same name, and “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” from the movie “Blue Hawaii,” and The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” an adaptation of the Zulu song “Wimoweh” that wasa No. 1 hit for the Tokens.

Ronnie Gilbert"We still had the feeling that if we could sing loud enough and strong enough and hopefully enough, it would make a difference."

Chris Squire"We have now lost, who, for me, are the two greatest bass players classic rock has ever known. John Entwistle and now Chris. There can hardly be a bass player worth his salt who hasn’t been influenced by one or both of these great players. Chris took the art of making a bass guitar into a lead instrument to another stratosphere and coupled with his showmanship and concern for every single note he played, made him something special." ~ Rick Wakeman

"Life on the street is a jungleA struggle to keep up the paceI just can't beat that old dog eat dogThe rats keep winnin' the rat racetonightI'm not gonna let it bother me tonight / The world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight / But I won't let it bother me tonight / I'm not gonna let it bother me tonight / Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide / But I won't let it bother me tonight" ~ Atlanta Rhythm Section

Monday, December 21, 2015

Ornette Coleman "Ornette Coleman ignored the boundaries between high art and folk music, between modernism and tradition; he recognized that the most human impulse is to explore and search for beauty. It is to all of our benefit that his own search was so fruitful." BY TAYLOR HO BYNUM @THE NEW YORKER

B.B. King"The blues was bleeding the same blood as me." Illustration by Ken Meyer Jr.

Ben E. King"He, he buys you diamonds, bright sparkling diamonds / But believe me, hear what I say / He can buy you the world but he'll never love the way / I love you."He sang not only Stand By Me but also Save The Last Dance - two of the greatest recorded vocal performances in history.

Percy Sledge "I was a little boy singing sad songs, about 9 or 10 years old in the woods. I listened to my voice coming back to me. It was as high as you could go. I dreamed of being famous as a singer when I was on those cotton fields. I wanted to see the world and meet people."

" I don't tell you what to say, I don't tell you what to do, So just let me be myself, That's all I ask of you / I'm young and I love to be young, I'm free and I love to be free

To live my life the way I want, To say and do whatever I please."

Clark Terry"Imitate, assimilate, and innovate."

Don Covay "One of these morningsThe chain is gonna breakBut up until the dayI'm gonna take all I can take."

John Renbourn: ‘I started out trying to play like Big Bill Broonzy’, Renbourn once said, and the Broonzy influence can be heard distictly on his first, eponymous, album. But, listening to that album, there were already signs of Renbourn’s guitar-picking brilliance – and of the diversity of his interests, with his arrangement of John Donne’s Elizabethan poem, ‘Go and catch a falling star’, later performed by Pentangle: Teach me to hear mermaids singing,Or to keep off envy’s stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind.SOURCE: https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/john-renbourn-buckets-of-tears/ Illustration by James Gurney

What if angels were just people having generous daysand the realms of glory were all the world's corners from which they cameand the night was silent 'cause no one was crying out in loneliness or pain?What if coming home for christmas meant you never had to run againand no bombs dropped and there really were good kingsand all ye faithful came together while having faith in different things.

What if the most wonderful day of the yearwas 'cause peace on earth was finally hereno matter what or where we singThis is my resilient daydreamI call it: joy to the worldI have it all year longwhile I make my way through the world

I am not that strongI crumble often from the truthlike the fact that guns and bombs are still lawful things we useand there's too much yet there's not enough foodand still the void we're aching with – the pain, the love, the wound

Meanwhile empty tablesmeanwhile we sing carols preaching morals that we're scared ofwe are wary more of strangers, giving gifts while building wallsIt's a host of contradictions and Christmas won't fix itI crave connection as I close off to it.

Can you see me?Do you hear what I hear, it's the sadness of humanityit's the basic human joyit's the bonds thereof, it's the bombs of lost loveonce we all have love enough – o holy nightAnd by the sun's returning shine I trust we willin the meantime let us align our hearts with our goodwillopen arms for strangers seeking refuge in our midstwhile welcoming our neighbours with love as well as gifts.